It's Harder than It Looks
by Sonny at Twilight
Summary: Sonny and Chad have broken up and Sonny regrets it. After realizing that she couldn't dwell on it forever and make herself miserable, she becomes determined to find a new boyfriend. xPERMANENT HIATUSx
1. Goodbye

**Okay. This actually started out as a one-shot when I was listening to _A Little Too Not Over You, _by David Archuleta, but then as I got into it and started thinking about it more and more, I realized I could actually make this into a whole other story. I will probably make my other story, _Eleven O'clock To the Rest of My Life, _a two-shot as opposed to making it a full chapter story just because I'd be afraid to make it too much like my other story _It's Not You, It's My Family. _Sorry. I will most likely just write out their date and give them a happy ending without going into detail about their relationship once they're together. Sound good? And I obviously don't own _Sonny With a Chance_, because otherwise I'd be one of the writers for it. Okay, without further ado, here it is. **

Chapter One: Goodbye

I thought it was supposed to get easier. Getting over a breakup, I mean. That eventually it would get less painful to think about that person and the times you had together before everything changed. Well, I've got news for whoever came up with that: it's not getting any easier! Maybe there's something wrong with me…

It's been three weeks since Chad and I broke up. It wasn't really like one of us got tired of the other; in fact it was quite the opposite. Or at least… _I _still really like him. What happened was that we were really just fighting so much and over the most stupid things. I honestly don't know what was wrong with us sometimes. Once we got into an all-out shouting match over who got to pick the movie the last time.

Looking back, I really wish we hadn't called it quits. But I can't tell him that now. The honesty ship has sailed for that.

Chad already has a new girlfriend. _Kate Phelps._ Ugh! I can't even say her name without mocking it anymore.

_Kate _is an up and rising singer that was just discovered, and now she's dating Chad Dylan Cooper.

It's a good thing I don't have to work on _So Random_ or any show for that matter with him. It's bad enough that _she _has to eat lunch with Chad and the rest of the cast of _Mackenzie Falls_ and I have to see her hanging all over him almost every day.

The rest of _So Random _practically threw a party when Chad and I broke up. I think they're wishing they hadn't been so joyful now though, because now I just annoy them to death with my moping. Okay, wrong word. I'm not moping, but I'm having a hard time coming up with anything funny for sketches. Everything I write down on paper is depressing and angst filled. Plus, cheerful-Sonny is making less and less appearances the more I see Chad with Kate…

I have a feeling an intervention is coming soon, not that it'll help. I don't think anything can.

My memories aren't fading, everything- even my clothes –remind me of him, I'm not funny anymore, my performance in _So Random _is borderline suckish, and even Lucy is getting concerned back in Wisconsin. Sorry people, but I'm just a little too not over him.

To make matters worse, _So Random _might've accidently-on-purpose TPed _Mackenzie Falls' _set last week, earning the hundreds of news articles that were published afterwards talking about the bad blood between us.

We might've been let off the hook too, if _Mackenzie Falls _hadn't turned right back around and done the same thing to us. Boy did the rumors start flying then. The worst part? They blamed all of the conflict on Chad and I's breakup.

Marshall was outraged and so was _Mackenzie Falls' _producer. And not with the press, but with us. I guess I can't blame him since it did get us a lot of bad street cred. But did they have to make us all do a press conference to clear things up? With _both_ the casts of _So Random _and _Mackenzie Falls _present?

And that's where we get to spend our time today. At a press conference. With _them._ That's right; they are officially the enemy to me again.

When I got dressed the morning of the press conference, I'll admit, I wasn't in the best of moods. Most girls would wear what their ex-boyfriend hated them in the most. Well I look at it differently. That morning, I put on the red shirt that Chad always complimented me on, and a pair of dark wash jeans. What I was doing was the reverse of what other, normal people did. By wearing that, I was showing him exactly what he was missing. Don't judge me, I was upset already.

On the way there in the limo, I just stared out the window, ready for it to be over.

I heard Tawni sigh loudly. "I cannot believe Marshall is making us do this. But I think we all know who the blame for this can go."

It got really quiet as four pairs of eyes bored into the side of my face. I shifted my body so I could see all of them. "What? Why are you blaming me for this?"

"You're the one who had us vandalize their set," Tawni said, resentment clear in her voice.

"You didn't _have_ to do it," I said, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Technically, all of this is because you just _had _to date Chad Dylan Cooper," Zora stated.

The others murmured and nodded in agreement.

I couldn't believe it. How could they bring this up again? They knew that that was why I was sucking at comedy lately and refused to come out of my dressing area some days. Some friends…

I remained impassive and turned back to the window. I was not talking to them for the rest of the drive.

And, yeah, I know that the breakup really had changed my happy-go-lucky attitude to something a little darker and pessimistic, but what did they expect when they brought it up 24/7?

We arrived at the conference room and the cast of _Mackenzie Falls _was already there, along with all of the reporters and cameras.

There was a super long table with a spot for each of us, with a bottle of water and a microphone at each seat. And of course, some genius decided to set out nametags and decide where we would sit. Guess who they put me next to.

Before we all had a chance to sit down, I leaned closer to Nico and whispered: "Want to trade seats?"

"And sit next to that jerk? Sorry Sonny but even _I_ won't take _that_ bullet for you," Nico responded.

I was feeling beyond betrayed today. They were really going to let me sit and die next to my ex-boyfriend?

Dragging my feet, I walked to the center of the table where Chad and I were supposed to sit. _Mackenzie Falls _was on Chad's other side and _So Random _was on my other side. We were the dividing line. Great…

Chad and I both reached to pull our chairs out at the same time. Our eyes met. My heart hurt. The look in his eyes was definitely not the one that he used to have back when we were dating. But I wasn't there to miss what used to be.

We both rolled our eyes and sighed in disgust at the same time. Apparently we were still in tune to each other if nothing else. As we did a few camera flashes went off. Oh, shoot. Marshall was going to kill me for that one.

I sat down as far away from Chad as I could without drawing attention to the fact and checked to my left. Once again, four pairs of eyes were staring at me, but they weren't mad. Come to think of it, they looked like they were staring past me. Tawni, who was sitting on my other side, pointed past me.

I turned and Chad was looking at me. Trying to plaster a smile on my face for the reporters, I put a hand over my microphone. "What?" I hissed.

Chad covered up his microphone as well and gave me a cocky grin that was _not_ the joking one I had grown accustomed to up until three weeks ago. "Just thought you should know that your 'vandalism,' was so amateurish we almost laughed when we saw it."

"Then why'd you call us out on it on national TV?" I asked through a fake, tight-lipped smile.

"That wasn't my idea," Chad said, and I _almost_ believed him.

"Right, sure," I said sarcastically. "I'll believe that when I believe that the nose on Kate's face is _real_." Having gotten the last word, I removed my hand from my mic and turned to face the press. "Okay," I said into the microphone. "Thank you for coming. We all just wanted to totally clear up any and all rumors."

"Yes, because our supposed 'bad blood' between us is an absolute lie," Chad said taking over immediately.

"Hold on," said one of the female reporters sitting in the front. "Can you first explain what that was when you and Sonny just sat down? It seemed as though there was some tension there."

All of their cameras and microphones pointed towards us. I decided to let Chad take care of answering that one.

"Oh that was nothing," Chad said quickly.

Ignoring his response, another reporter spoke up. "Is there still some tension and leftover bitterness from your breakup?"

I glanced over at Chad quickly through my peripheral vision. Ha! Right… Like I would ever admit to 'leftover bitterness' in front of my costars and ex…

"No, _I _don't have any," Chad said. I heard him shift in his chair. I looked at him and he was smirking at me. "Do you Sonny?"

Oh, that little… I smiled sweetly. "Nope… No regrets here," I said innocently. Taking advantage of the black tablecloth that hid our feet from the press, I kicked him in the leg, discreetly- and hard -, showing no indication that I had. "_Honey_…" I muttered under my breath, low enough for the mics to not pick up on it, but loud enough that Chad could hear me.

Chad didn't even flinch. We're actors, remember. This is what we do.

I smiled wickedly. "Yes, I am happily single and Chad has moved on to the new singer, Kate Phelps." I felt a sharp blow to my own leg, but my smile didn't change. Haha! They had been trying to keep that a secret. Oops… I knew it was wrong deep down, but they would've found out eventually, right?

Reporters started firing questions at Chad immediately.

"Yes, thank you, Sonny," he said, clearly- to me –fighting back sarcasm. "It is true that Kate and I are dating. We've been dating for a couple of weeks and-"

I coughed into my palm. "Three…" I cleared my throat after coughing the word out. Another kick from Chad. This time not because I revealed something they shouldn't know, but because he had been trying to convince me- unsuccessfully –that he hadn't started dating her right after we broke up. I didn't believe him though.

"_Two _weeks, and uh, yes, that's all," Chad stated.

"Did you and Sonny agree to just stay friends?" called out someone with a video camera.

What was it with these people? This wasn't a press conference to reveal Chad and I's relationship details.

"No," Chad said into the microphone bluntly.

I stared at him, not even trying to hide my shock. I _did_ hide the hurt that came from my throbbing heart though. When had we agreed on that?

"It was just too hard for us and we decided it would be best to have no further contact," Chad said, completely ignoring my stare.

"And the vandalism? What was that exactly?" asked another curious reporter.

"Harmless pranks," Tawni said, speaking up for the first time. She must've been getting desperate for the spotlight.

"Yes, that's right." My voice was flat and dull.

"And what was your reason for splitting up? Chad, Sonny?" a nosy woman in a yellow suit asked.

Chad and I met eyes.

"Because we were fighting over the silliest things and decided we didn't want to have to deal with that any longer," I stated, still making eye contact with him.

"Then you still have feelings for each other?"

For that question I couldn't be looking him in the eye. The tablecloth was suddenly extremely interesting to me…

"No comment," we both said at the same time.

The conference ended shortly after that. I _think _we cleared up the "rumors" about there being unhealthy competition between our two shows. Now of course, we all know that the competition actually _is _there, but we couldn't let anyone else think that.

I was in my dressing room, getting ready to go home when Chad barged in. I shouldn't have been surprised since he never did learn to knock, but he still scared me half to death. Tawni was off doing something else and it had just been me until he walked in.

"Sonny, how could you?" Chad demanded angrily.

I quickly gathered up the books that I'd dropped when he burst into the room. "What are you talking about?"

"What do you think I'm talking about? I thought I could at least trust you to not tell the press that Kate and I were dating. But I guess I was wrong," he said coldly.

I slowly turned to face him and found Chad standing in the doorway looking angry and hurt. I felt bad that I had crossed the line, but what did he mean by "were?"

"What do you mean you _were _dating?" I was a little afraid to hear the answer. I put my hand on the back of the couch to steady myself from the impending, heavy guilt.

"We broke up," Chad said shortly.

"Because of me…?" I asked weakly. Oh boy. Nice-Sonny was back with a vengeance, and remorse was flooding my senses and making it almost impossible to think about anything else.

"No, not just because of you…" After a few seconds he continued. "I just wanted to say, thanks a whole bunch for spilling that secret," he said sarcastically sneering. "Goodbye, Sonny Munroe." And with that, he left the room, slamming the door on the way out.

Nice going, Sonny… I had obviously hurt his feelings and played a bigger part in their breakup than he let on.

I felt so terrible. Had I really become that bitter and oblivious to my actions that I had been stooping to that? It may not seem like that big of a deal, but when you work in Hollywood, every secret is precious. Once the press gets their hands on it, no one ever forgets it. And it's even worse when the whole world knows something that you _didn't _want them to know. I should know…

Even though I was the one who had hurt someone else, I felt like crying.

It was apparent that I was never going to be able to move on and get over Chad unless I found someone else. Until then, I would keep dreaming about him and crying every time he gave me a cold, uncaring look. I was fed up with myself. I had been bitter-Sonny for long enough. It was time to pick up the pieces and push forward with my life. I was going to find a new boyfriend.

**So what'd you think? Tell me whether or not you liked it, and, encouragement to continue is appreciated. I think it'll be kind of fun to write something a little different for a change. And for everyone who's worried that Chad and Sonny will be mad and mean to each other for the whole story, don't worry. I have plans on having them make up. But will it be so they can be friends or will they start dating again? I literally don't know yet. But we all will soon enough. Anyway, thanks for reading this, and thanks in advance for reviewing. Assuming you review. (Please.) Okay that's enough begging for me. I'll post for this and my other stories soon enough. Bye!**


	2. Not At All

**Chapter two is here! Yay! I figured out my plans for Chad and Sonny, but that doesn't mean I'm going to tell you. I like surprises. And keeping people hooked by suspense. Anyway, enjoy. **

Chapter Two: Not At All

Okay… some more news that probably should have occurred to me two days ago when I decided to find a new boyfriend/crush. It wasn't going to be easy.

I mean, I hadn't really been in the dating game for a while. Chad and I kept going with our fights and all for almost six months because we really didn't start fighting constantly until the last month and a half before we split. But enough of that… My point was that, I didn't even know where to start.

And sure, the first step was obviously finding a decent boy, but it went deeper than that. I wasn't just going to pick any guy up just to make myself feel better or to make Chad jealous. I really wanted to move on.

"Sonny!"

I snapped my head up and looked at my cast mates, breaking out of my daydreaming. "What?"

"Did you hear Marshall?" Grady asked.

"Uh… not really," I admitted guiltily.

"He said we were getting a guest star to work with for a couple of weeks," Tawni said, fanning herself with a pile of fan mail.

"Really, who?" I asked. I needed a distraction, and this was perfect. Focus on work as opposed to boys.

"We don't know yet," Zora said from the open sarcophagus.

"Someone famous probably," Nico said.

"How do you know they'll be famous?" Grady asked.

"Because…" Nico popped his shirt collar and smiled. "we are."

Tawni rolled her eyes while Nico and Grady high-fived each other laughing.

"I just hope it's someone nice," I said hopefully.

"Well just so long they aren't like blondie over here; I think we're safe." Zora smirked, closing up the coffin before Tawni could lunge for her.

Tawni glared over her shoulder but didn't move. "At least I'm not as bad as those jerk faces on Mackenzie Falls." With that, Tawni got up and walked out of the prop room, visibly irritated.

I crossed and uncrossed my arms uncomfortably. I seriously needed to get over Chad. This was getting to be downright pathetic, and everyone else could see it too. I finally just turned to Nico and Grady. "When is our guest star coming?"

"Tomorrow," Nico said. "And I heard it was a girl."

That was my cue to leave. It got unbearably boring when they started talking about one of several things. Girls, food, video games, and pranks. Yeah, it was time to take my leave.

**The Next Day… **

When we arrived on set the next day, Marshall was waiting with our new guest star. "Hey guys. Meet Sarah Conner. She'll be joining you guys for the next few weeks in your sketches," Marshall said, gesturing to Sarah.

Sarah was a little taller than I was, blond hair, blue eyes, pretty much just plain beautiful. She was smiling a genuine smile though, which gave me some hope.

"Hi guys!" Sarah said enthusiastically. She reminded me of myself on my first day here. I got flashbacks when she also started hugging all of us one by one. Tawni was the only one who recoiled, naturally, but the rest of us were happy to return the greeting.

"Wow I am so happy to meet you guys," Sarah gushed.

"And we're thrilled to have you here," I said smiling my first real smile all week. It sure would be nice to not be the only overly-cheery hugger around.

"Yeah and she's still yet to stop talking about coming here," said a voice coming from a seat in our audience stand.

Sarah rolled her eyes.

"Who's that?" Grady asked, curiously.

"That's just the annoying twin brother that my mom made me drag here with me," Sarah said in an exasperated tone.

Her twin brother stepped down from the stand to come and greet us. When I could see him clearly, I realized that he looked a lot like Sarah. Blond hair, bright blue eyes, on the tall side, drop-dead-gorgeous… He actually reminded me a little bit of Chad, except that his hair was a little bit longer and his face reminded me more of a kid's than a serious actor's.

"Hey, I'm Randy Conner," he said, talking directly to me.

"Sonny Munroe," I said shyly. This guy was giving me some serious butterflies and I barely knew him. Houston, we have a crush.

"I know who you are," Randy said smiling sweetly at me.

Nico cleared his throat loudly. "We're still here, you know?"

"Hmm?" I asked, still staring at Randy.

"Forget it," Grady said. "We have to work on our sketches. Are you coming Sarah?"

"Heck yes!" she said hopping over to the spot between Nico and Grady. They exchanged an I'm-in-heaven-glance.

"Uh, okay," I said starting to follow all five of them reluctantly.

"That's okay, Sonny. We don't need anything depressing on the show this week. We'll be sure to write you in though," Zora said over her shoulder.

I would've protested if I wasn't so happy that that meant I could spend more time with Randy. _Maybe…_

"So why'd they say they didn't need anything depressing?" Randy asked, still holding his perfect smile.

"Uh… well I haven't been the best person to go to for 'funny' lately," I admitted, clasping my hands together behind my back.

"How come? Sorry, I don't mean to pry, but… You seem like the funniest one on _So Random, _so…" Randy trialed off, shrugging and laughing a little.

"Well… It's just been a little hard for me. I've been going through a tough time with the breakup, because we used to be super close and then…" I was the one to trail off then. I couldn't help smiling at him even though I was talking about my most touchy subject.

"Oh… Sorry… Breakups are tough. We've all been through that at one time or another," Randy said sympathetically. "It really sucks, huh?"

"Yeah… But I'm getting over it," I lied. I didn't need to tell him that he was possibly going to be a key part in my recovery. "So… do you want a tour of the studio?"

"Sure, why not? I've always wondered what it looks like behind the scenes in these places," Randy said, shoving his hands in his jeans' pockets.

"Well it's all pretty much just lights and wires." Hearing my own dull tone, I quickly changed tactics. "It's still pretty cool though. You should've seen me when I first came here. I was like a little kid in a toy store, walking around and touching everything." I laughed at the memory.

I must have shown Randy around the entire studio, sneaking us through all of the sets of the sitcoms, soap operas, and even a cooking show's set. I knew all the ins and outs of the massive studio because Chad and I used to do that when we were bored and wanted to be alone. The one set I _didn't_ take him through was the obvious one: _Mackenzie Falls._

We passed right by it, and Randy didn't even say a word when he noticed a picture of me hanging up on Chad's banned wall. I choked back any insults I had for Chad and led him back to _So Random_'s set.

"Well, what did you think?" I asked when we returned to where we had started out from. I collapsed on one of the audience chairs.

"That was the best tour I've ever been on. You weren't too bad of a tour guide either," Randy said smiling at me. He sat in the chair next to me.

I ducked my head and smiled, blushing slightly. "Thanks. So are you going to be around much? Or is this your only day here on set with Sarah?"

"Well I was only coming here in the first place in hopes for a tour, so I can check that off my list…"

"Oh…" I tried to hide the disappointment in my voice. Darn!

"But I could always come back if, you know, anyone wanted me to." He looked meaningfully at me.

Oh my gosh… Did he like me? "Uh, well, it would be kind of nice to have someone else around here on set…" I needed to say it in less of a roundabout way. He might have actually liked me back! "I mean… I'd like it if you came back." Better.

"Then I guess you'll be stuck with me again tomorrow." He laughed.

"Only if you don't mind being stuck with _me _all day."

"Not at all."

Eep! I think I had taken care of step one. Decent boy… check! Step two: get closer and see if he likes me back.

Hmm… maybe my luck was changing after all…

Ooh! Plan! "Hey, there's this party going on at the end of this week. That one sitcom, _Counting the Days_ is having a party for the end of season two and they invited _So Random._ Do you want to come?" I asked.

"Oh, I don't know. It's for all of the Hollywood people like you-"

"Yes, but we 'Hollywood people' like to bring normal people along with us to keep our egos from swelling," I said jokingly. "Come on. It'll be fun."

"Okay, I'll come," he agreed.

"Good."

**And there's chapter two. Okay, what I _can_ tell you is that if Randy ever does "ditch" Sonny, he won't crush her for no reason. I've already decided that much. Also, Chad will definitely be in the next chapter and should be making more appearances in the later chapters. I can also tell you this much about Sonny and Chad's future relationship, you never know what can happen. You can read as much into that as you like, because that's all you'll be getting. Sorry... Anyway, keep reading and reviewing! And I promise that the next update will be either for _Eleven O'clock To the Rest of My Life, _or _It's Not You, It's My Family. Then_ I will come back to this lovely story. I love writing for them all. Okay, bye!**


	3. Just Friends

**Okay, sorry for the delay on this. I've been doing this really annoying thing where I write half of a chapter for one story and then half a chapter for a different story and so on. But look, I finally finished this one. Yay! So, I guess that's all I have to say. Read on! **

Chapter Three: Just Friends

I glared at the pile of clothes I'd discarded on the floor, absolutely fed up. Every dang thing I owned that was fancy reminded me of… other times. I was trying to find something to wear to the party I'd invited Randy to, but every single thing I tried was screaming "Chad Dylan Cooper."

I swear that jerk face was messing with me even when he was no longer in my life. You talk about annoying.

It was looking like I had no choice. Gulp. I was going to have to ask my mom for help. Now, don't get me wrong. I love her, and she's got great taste, but she's also a tad overeager when she gets the chance to dress me up and help pick out clothes. I already had to wean her off her habit of choosing my outfits for me up until Middle School. This would be like fueling the addict, only with slightly less harmful consequences.

As I had thought, my mom jumped at the idea of being able to help. She lit up like a Christmas tree but had to practically drag me to the car to go buy me something.

Now, for most girls, they probably really like new clothes and trying stuff on. I'm pretty sure I am the one exception. I like getting new clothes, but the whole shop-'till-you-drop process has never been appealing, and trying on clothes is definitely not my idea of a blast. Oh well. It is necessary. I guess…

So the _Counting the Days_ sitcom people decided to make it a more formal party, forcing me to sit through an hour and a half of makeup and hair courtesy of Connie Munroe once she found out.

The cast of _So Random_ and Sarah and Randy agreed to meet up on the set of _So Random_ and then we would walk to the _Counting the Days_ set where they were holding their big party.

"Wow, Sonny. You actually look… pretty," said Tawni in a way that was more sincere than I had ever heard from her.

I smiled. "Thanks, so do you."

Tawni smiled and smoothed down a nonexistent stray hair.

That was when Randy and Sarah arrived.

When no one else was really paying attention, Randy walked up to me, smiling. My heart started beating faster, but I almost frowned when I realized that that was nothing compared to the frantic pace it used to go at when I started dating… _him_.

"So, you look really nice," Randy said. I was starting to see why I liked him so much. He was literally _always _smiling. And quite frankly, it was contagious.

I couldn't help smiling back. "Yeah, well you don't look so bad yourself."

"Come on," Grady said impatiently. "I want to get there before _Mackenzie Falls _does."

"Heck, with these girls taking so long I'm just aiming to get there before the party _ends,_" Nico said, looking at the clock on his cell phone.

I whipped around to face them, probably hitting Randy in the face with my hair. I never was sure, since he denied it when I asked, but I wouldn't put it past him to lie to make me feel better. "Wait! _Mackenzie Falls _is going to be there? Like… _everyone _from _Mackenzie Falls_?"

Zora nodded sympathetically.

Randy looked at me curiously. "What's wrong with _Mackenzie Falls_?"

Didn't this kid read the news or watch TV? I swear, my mom knew about Chad and I's breakup _before_ I had time to come home and spill my guts to her. Every little thing about us was all over the news then. The press followed us around like vampires stalking their victims. Except that in our case, they only wanted to suck all the life out of us metaphorically. Honestly, I think I'd prefer the vampires…

Tawni, Zora, Grady, and Nico eyed me to see how I'd respond to that. I think they expected me to either burst into tears, run away, or go into a monologue about how awful they were.

I chose neither and shrugged, trying my hardest to make it look casual. "Our shows don't really get along and certain cast members are more annoying than others, is all. Doesn't matter though. Let's just go."

I started walking off the set with Randy and Sarah close behind. The others caught up to us once they recovered from the shock of my nonchalance. It's like they thought I was an emotional time bomb waiting to blow at the first mention of Chad Dylan Cooper and _Mackenzie Falls_.

The kids, who played the four main characters from _Counting the Days_, Corey Duckworth, Asia Kandlik, Mitchell Larson, and Joanna Merchant, were there to greet us at the door.

"Hey, you guys," Joanna said happily waving at us.

"Hi," we all said greeting them. Our casts had met at the last Tween Choice Awards when we had to share a table with them, so we were all friends.

"Don't you all look fancy shmancy?" Asia complimented. Her eyes grazed over the boys, but lingered on Sarah, Zora, Tawni, and I's dresses. _She _was the kind of girl who loved the whole shopping/new clothes experience.

"Thanks for coming," Corey said.

"Refreshments over there," Joanna said pointing to the long table in the corner.

"DJ table over there." Mitchell pointed to a spot on the other side of the room.

"Party people right there." Asia pointed to the crowd of people in the center of the room talking and dancing.

"Producer/director/adult supervision over there," Joanna gestured over to the side of the room where four adults were glued to their laptops and cell phones.

"Have fun, and in about an hour, we're having the little farewell parts of the party," Asia said, rocking back and forth on her metallic blue heels excitedly.

"Oh, was this your last season?" I asked.

"Nah," Corey said dismissing the idea.

"We do have to take a short little break though to get everything all settled legally and junk." Mitchell took a bite of a half eaten chocolate chip cookie in his hand.

"Mostly because little me got a movie deal," Asia said twirling a piece of her wavy black-with-pink-streaks hair and wound it around her pinky finger.

"No way. Which movie?" Tawni asked eagerly.

"Well I'm not sure if I'm at liberty to say," Asia said coyly.

"Please?" Tawni asked.

"Well okay," Asia agreed immediately before bouncing off with Tawni over to the nearest table. The two queens of gossip and fashion were the best of friends.

"Hey, has the cast of _Mackenzie Falls _gotten here yet?" Nico asked.

"Yup." Corey jerked his thumb towards the center of the room where the majority of their cast was. I made myself not look for Chad. He was _not _going to ruin this night for me.

"Dang it," Nico said disappointedly. Suddenly a super fast song came on. Nico grinned. "That's my favorite song. See you guys later."

Once Nico had practically knocked everyone over in his merciless path to the dance floor, Grady stepped forward. "Is tonight my lucky night?" he asked Joanna hopefully.

Joanna's long red bangs fell over one of her dark green eyes. "Yeah, we'll see."

"Yes!" Grady said victoriously punching the air.

I smiled and glanced over at Randy who was also grinning.

Grady'd been trying for forever to get Joanna to go out with him.

Zora rubbed her stomach hungrily. "I'm starved. Snack table, here I come."

"I'll come with," Sarah offered, trailing after her favorite-as-of-late cast member.

Since Grady was caught up in wooing Joanna, Randy and I wandered over to the edge of the dance floor.

"So where are you and Sarah from?" I asked Randy.

"We actually live pretty close by," he replied.

"Really?" I asked full of enthusiasm and hope. Yes! He didn't live out of state so he wouldn't be leaving forever once Sarah was done working with us. Yay!

"Yeah, we live like thirty minutes from the studio."

"Wow, that's awesome. So I won't be saying goodbye to you and Sarah forever after next week is over?"

"Not if you don't want to…"

"Then I guess we won't be saying goodbye," I said with a smile.

"So… we've been hanging out all week but I still feel like I know nothing about you," Randy said.

"Oh… well ask away. You're looking at the human version of an open book. What do you want to know?" I asked, ignoring the feeling that eyes were just about burning a hole in the back of my head.

"Siblings?"

"Older sister named Summer. She's twenty-three, married, and lives in Texas. We don't talk often but we're still relatively close. No pun intended," I said, listing the basic facts about Summer.

"Summer, huh?" he asked, grinning.

I knew what he was getting at. "Yeah, I know. My name's Sonny, like the actual sun and her name's Summer. People do usually get a kick out of that."

"That's funny… Okay, uh… Well you don't really talk like you're from around here? Did you just move out here?" Randy asked.

I had gotten this from a lot of people out here, but unlike them, Randy wasn't asking this in a mean, who's-the-alien way. "Yeah, I moved out here with my mom from Green Bay, Wisconsin."

"Wow. Way different from out here, huh? Do you get homesick?"

I toyed with the pendant on the necklace that my mother had forced upon me, absentmindedly. "Sometimes I do. But this is my dream. To be able to work on my favorite show with all the awesome cast members from _So Random_. And I'm still in pretty close contact with my old friends. But you and Sarah don't seem like you're from around here either. Have you guys lived here your whole lives or…?"

"Hardly. We moved out here a couple of years ago from Kansas," he said, smiling.

"Kansas? Wow. I never would've guessed."

"I guess we have more in common than I thought."

"I guess so."

Sarah and Zora danced up to us then.

"Hey, how's it going?" Sarah asked, throwing an arm over each of our shoulders.

"Fine, Sarah," Randy said in a way that sounded like he wanted her to leave.

She blatantly ignored the hint and continued rambling on.

While she was talking I happened to glance around the room and saw Chad standing off to the side, not really looking like he was enjoying myself. I couldn't help but feel like it was partially my fault for this because if it weren't for me then he probably would have been having fun at the party with his girlfriend. Darn my need to be compassionate to _everyone_ in the entire world.

"Hey, I'll be right back, okay?" I shrugged out from under Sarah's arm and looked at the three of them briefly before turning to walk over to Chad.

"Okay!" Zora called out on behalf of all of them.

I walked up to Chad and stood next to him. After a few seconds of silence- between us, anyway –I blurted out an "I'm sorry."

Chad glanced at me before returning his gaze to the dance-off that was going on. "For what?"

"For breaking up you and Kate… I know you say I didn't have that much to do with it, but I know that you're lying. I just felt bad since you look like the only person here who isn't having a good time at all. And you're alone." I unclasped and clasped the bracelet that I had the choice of either wearing, or waving goodbye to my allowance. Yeah, my mom is one of a kind, isn't she?

Chad sighed. I recognized the second meaning behind it. I either was missing something, hitting it right on target, or I was just really annoying the heck out of him. "I thought you were mad at me."

"Funny, I thought _you _were mad at _me_," I said. "I guess next time I'll try not to jump to conclusions when you come into my dressing room and yell at me for breaking you and your girlfriend up," I said, sarcasm clear in my tone.

"Sorry." There was a long pause. "Why did you come over here again?"

"To apologize because you look lonely and miserable," I said bluntly.

"Right, well I'm fine. My friends dragged me here when I didn't want to come in the first place. Plus, thanks to your friendship with those _Counting the Days _kids, I got daggers when I walked through the door," Chad said, smiling a little.

"Huh… yeah… They're really nice kids." I paused and took a deep breath. "Is it really that bad that we can't be friends? I mean, it's been two minutes and we haven't made a scene."

Don't ask me what caused my sudden change of heart, because I have no idea. Fighting with him wasn't working, and I didn't _really _want to totally cut him out of my life. I guess my reasoning was that I wanted some kind of a connection. And besides that, he really was a decent guy once you got to know him.

Chad chuckled and shook his head. "Look again."

I turned my head and a bunch of people around the room were watching us. I focused back on Chad. "That's not what I meant. I meant the kind of scene that landed us on the cover of magazines for my loose cannon of a temper and you're incredible set of lungs," I said blushing at the memory. "All this is just because it's our first civilized conversation in a really long time."

"You just want to be friends again?" he asked with no double meaning or hidden agenda in his voice.

_No! I'd prefer if we could get back together no matter how many more times I get called out on my so-called temper problems by some blogger! I still love you! I-_ I had to shut my internal voice off before I started actually saying those things out loud. "Why not at least try?"

He took all of two seconds to consider this. "Sure, let's just be friends."

Ugh… Would he stop saying "just" and "friends" in the same sentence? It was only making this harder for me and my internal voice to stay quiet.

Suddenly, Rachel Anderson sauntered over to us and put a hand on Chad's arm. She was the voice of the main character in some cartoon that I didn't care enough about to remember the name. I bit back anything I'd regret, including, but not limited to, growling at that little-

"Hey, Chad. Dance with me?" Rachel asked.

That little… mmm, was… beautiful, of course. Someone people would expect a boy like Chad Dylan Cooper to go out with. I, on the other hand, was the last person anyone expected him to date.

She was a petite five feet, four inches with long black hair and piercing sapphire blue eyes. The kind of girl that made every other girl within a ten mile radius hide her boyfriend in a closet and leave him there until she left town.

I was undeniably jealous on the inside. On the outside I told a very different story. On the outside I couldn't care less that she was fawning all over my man.

Chad looked to me to check if our conversation was over or just getting started.

I waved my hand to shoo him away. "Go ahead, have fun. I should get back to-"

"Your date?" Chad asked, pointing to Randy who was still standing next to Zora and Sarah. All three of them were watching us carefully.

"What? No, no, he's not my date," I said nervously.

He probably took that as me being embarrassed because he caught me, but it was really me internally slapping myself upside the head for not… I didn't even know what I would've done differently.

Chad nodded in an uh-huh-sure way before turning and walking with Rachel onto the dance floor. My heart felt a little achy. He wasn't acting even the least bit jealous. Not that that was my intention, but still… He didn't even care.

I walked back to my friends and "date," desperately trying to at least get enthusiasm to show up on my face.

"What was that all about?" Zora asked.

"Just patching things up with Chad," I said. Perkiness may have been in my expression, but it was miles away from my voice.

"You mean you got back together with Chad Dylan Cooper?!" Sarah asked excitedly. "I always knew you guys were beyond perfect for each other!"

"No, we just agreed on being friends, now," I said, forcing a smile into my tone.

"You used to date Chad Dylan Cooper?" Randy asked, shocked.

Sarah rolled her eyes. "No, duh, genius. Don't you even _glance_ at magazines once a year?" she asked sarcastically.

"So you're really not getting back together?" Zora asked.

"Nope," I said, glancing at Chad and Rachel together. If he was as heartbroken as I was over the breakup, he did an excellent job hiding it. Well, I never planned on getting him back anyway… It was just a little "what if" in the back of my head that had made itself known on several occasions. No biggie. Life would go on. "We're… just friends, now." The words felt painful and weird on my tongue, but nevertheless, I swallowed the feeling, smiled, and turned my full attention back to my other friends and Randy.

**So... What'd you think? I hope you liked it. Or loved it. Whatever. I already know almost exactly what I'm going to have happen in this story. Now if I could just get it written out... The next update will be sometime within the next week because I've got a few other things to finish up. Including, a special Easter one-shot for Chad and Sonny. :) Okay, so please review and keep reading. Thanks! :)**


	4. Stale Cake

**Hey, I'm back. Sorry for the delay. Figuring out the direction of the story and then writing it out took more time than I would've liked it to. Anyway, this is a comparitively short chapter for a few reasons. One, it's early in the morning and I'm tired. Two, I felt the need to update. And three, this leaves you with a slight cliff-hanger. Not a huge one, but a cliff-hanger nonetheless. Okay, enough babbling. Read on. **

Chapter Four: Stale Cake

I waved goodbye to Tawni, Nico, Randy, and Sarah from the sidewalk. They would be dropped off by the limo back to their houses next.

I walked up the outdoor staircase up to our floor and tested the door knob on our front door. Finding it was unlocked, I pushed through the door calling out, "I'm home," while I kicked off the silver ballet flats my mom had bought me for the party.

"Hi, honey! Did you have fun?" I heard my mom's cheerful voice coming from around the corner in our kitchen.

I walked into the kitchen to join her. "Yeah, it was pretty- Mom!"

Once again my mother had been caught by me drinking juice straight out of the carton, like she knew I hated.

She quickly closed up the carton of strawberry kiwi juice and returned it to the top shelf in the fridge and swallowed guiltily. "What?" asked the total picture of innocence, AKA, my mom, Connie.

"Would it kill you to use a glass, mom? I mean, isn't it usually the parents scolding their teenagers not to do this?"

My mom smiled weakly. "Old habits die hard?" she tried.

"Uh-huh."

"If we're all done picking at my bad habits… tell me about the party. Was it fun? Did you talk to Randy? Give me all the gory details," my mom said, taking a seat at the small square wooden table that resided against the back wall of our kitchen.

"There's not really much to tell…" I hedged. "Chad and I decided to be friends," I added trying to downplay it.

"You did? Well that's…"

I looked at my mom's torn expression. Out of everyone, my mom was the one person who had witnessed the full side effects of the breakup. They weren't pretty, to say the least. You could have made Eeyore look like an optimist if you had put him next to me during my week-long depression period.

"Mom, its fine. We're just going to be civilized friends. I miss that." I pulled out the chair next to my mom and sat down on it sideways.

"But can you handle being only friends?"

"Sure… It'll be fine. And besides… Randy and his family live in town, so… Who knows? Maybe it'll turn into something more."

_**Tuesday night… **_

I hadn't been completely sure if Randy liked me as more than a friend or not… until now. I'm still not sure how it happened. One minute, we were talking about Friday's party and how much fun it was, and the next, he was offering to take me out to a movie and I was accepting.

We had a lot of fun. The movie we saw, _17 Again_, was hilarious and before and after the movie we talked a bunch too. It was all seeming to work out too perfectly. I kept thinking to myself, _what's the catch?_ There had to be one. Because, really, what were the odds that the boy I pick out to be my new crush/potential boyfriend likes me back, asks me out on a date, and then outright asks if that made us a couple or not?

I paced the bathroom floor in my purple pajamas, thinking, reviewing the night in my head. Everything had gone perfectly. Nothing was wrong. So why oh why was I feeling like there was one small element that I was missing?

A gentle knock on the door startled me and broke me out of my puzzled thoughts.

"Sonny? Are you okay in there?" Of course it was my mother asking this.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said through the door. I turned the lock and opened the door. "I was just thinking. I'm practically dead on my feet though, so I'm going to go to bed," I told my mom while walking slowly past her to my room. I didn't have to act tired though since the length of my day was catching up to me.

She yawned in agreement. "Alright. Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

It wasn't until Randy and I had been dating, officially, for about three weeks that I figured out what I had been missing. The "catch" to my seemingly perfect new relationship and ability to "move on."

I hadn't really been thinking about Chad all that much. Okay, okay, yes I had… but not in an I-miss-him, can't-get-over-him way. I had been thinking- and overanalyzing -the fact that although we had agreed to be friends, we still had yet to speak since the night of the party. Granted, we hadn't been throwing each other glares or even the occasional sticking out of tongues at each other, and in general we were being… polite.

We'd accidentally run into each other- yes, it was my fault. No need to rub it in –and yeah, we'd both quickly apologized before parting ways again, but I didn't count that as really talking. Especially not for people on a friend status.

But aside from that, I hadn't been thinking about him a ton. Once, maybe twice, romantically during lunch, but I didn't think that that counted for anything. I was a tad off.

After Randy and I came back from our short lunch date, we went back to the studio. (And in case you were wondering why Randy and Sarah don't have school, it's because they were on summer break.) My realization hit me after Randy had left to do something else and I was on my way to rehearsal.

I stopped in my tracks for about five seconds before breaking into a run in the opposite direction to the bathrooms. My reaction to coming to this conclusion was not allowed to be witnessed by _anyone_.

I shut myself up in the bathroom and locked the door. I was finally alone. I lowered the seat on the toilet and sat down with my knees brought up to my chest.

Who had I really been kidding? I was far from over Chad. I hated it as soon as I thought of it, but forcing myself to be around Randy and love him as much as I used to love Chad was like eating a piece of stale cake. It was still sweet, it had its benefits, but it didn't satisfy. After eating it- or being around Randy –you're left wanting more, only what you really want is the real thing, the original. But at that point, you've lost your chance, and the real deal- fresh cake in this case -is long gone. You can't turn the clocks back to when it was still fresh… still yours…

I couldn't even see what was written in black Sharpie on the stall door clearly anymore. Everything was blurry and watery from my tears.

I felt so bad. I had just been on a date with Randy, and I was locked in a bathroom crying my eyes out because I still missed Chad. And I was relating Randy to stale cake. Gosh, I was such an awful person!

I finally got what I wanted. Someone to help me get over Chad, and take my mind off him… A new boyfriend… But it wasn't working the way I'd hoped it would've. To say it was would be lying to myself.

Ugh! This was so frustrating!

I couldn't help but cry though. I wasn't even crying because I felt sorry for myself though. It was because… well there were several reasons.

One reason was that I had been lying to myself without even knowing it. Telling myself, basically, that it had worked, and I was over Chad. I was very clearly not, in fact.

Another reason was for Randy. I just felt bad because after realizing that even though I liked Randy a lot, I would never be able to give him as much love as I was capable of. I just couldn't because that kind of love was still locked up in a safe in my heart with "Chad" written on it. And I no longer had the key to that safe. I'd given it to Chad.

My third reason tied in with the second one. At this point, I almost felt like I had just been using him. _But I really do like him_, I reasoned with myself. Okay, so maybe "using" was too strong a word, and in reality, I wasn't. I guess it just felt like it…

That was it! That was going to be the last of my wallowing from then on.

I decided then and there that after that, I would no longer cry over this. I was going to suck it up, and accept the fact that the person I truly loved was gone forever, and I was going to realize that I might not find that again and the closest to I would ever come to that again was Randy. I know that sounds awful for Randy, like he's the second choice, the backup plan, but I really did love him. Just not like I loved Chad. And I felt _so_ guilty about that…

_**The Next Day…**_

I walked into my dressing room, ready to finally relax for a little while after a trying rehearsal. We had some disagreements about how the sketch should be playing out, and one certain person refused for the longest time, to see it any other way than her own. Needless to say, I needed a break.

But the person sitting comfortably on my couch caught me off guard, and I dropped the one prop I had needed for rehearsal: a giant foam iphone.

Chad looked up at my arrival and smiled.

He always did have the worst timing. After all these days and weeks filled with opportunities to talk to me, he chose then. Right when I really needed a break _and_ the day after I had realized I wasn't over him yet. Yes… timing was not his strong point… to say the least.

**Well... what'd you think? Positive things, I hope. So, I will either update later today or tomorrow. Hopefully... I'm pretty sure I have enough ideas to crank out a decent sized chapter this weekend. And just to add, I really did just see _17 Again_ on Friday and it was so funny. I loved it! Alright... I think I'm done talking. Thanks for reading, please review, and goodbye! **


	5. You Be Tiffany, I'll Be Alex

**Finally, it's done! The chapter, not the story. Writer's block and procrastination took over which would be why it's been over two weeks. Sorry. :( Anyways, enjoy. **

Chapter Five: You Be Tiffany, I'll Be Alex

I recovered from the first overall surprise and complete annoyance in seeing Chad just suddenly show up in my dressing room, and picked up the foam prop I had dropped. I walked into the room and backed up into the door to close it.

"Hi…" My tone was guarded.

"Hi." Chad's tone was casual.

I set the giant foam phone down in a random corner and stood a few feet in front of him. "So… why are you here… now…?"

"I'm just dropping in to say 'hi,'" Chad said. Ha! As if that would explain away everything! Try again!

"Just to say 'hi'… _Really_? Now?" I tried to not sound aggravated since _technically_ he had yet to do anything wrong.

"Sure, why not?"

I took a deep breath so that whatever would end up inevitably impulsively coming out of my mouth would at least be said in a relatively calm tone. "I don't get it," I finally said. "You have all of these endless opportunities to show some kind of acknowledgment that I have yet to fall off the face of the Earth, and you pick the worst possible day ever to do this. Why?"

Chad smirked and laughed a little. "You're planning on falling off the face of the Earth. Good luck with that."

I gave him my best death glare. I'd like to think that it works even though Chad once told me that I couldn't intimidate a chipmunk. Well, whatever to that. "Don't mess with me today, Cooper."

"Last name status again? Really? I thought we were friends." Chad stood up.

"Well you haven't been acting like we're really friends," I said.

"You could have said something too, you know," Chad reminded me.

I already had my comeback for that one. "I figured since I was the one to suggest friendship again that you would be the one to initiate the whole talking thing."

Chad gave me the same look I'd seen Grady have when Ms. Bitterman tried to teach us Spanish. Then Grady would ask if she could repeat that just _one more time_.

"It's called a give-and-take relationship. I extend the olive branch of friendship, you make the first move to talk and say 'hi,'" I tried explaining. "Get it?"

"Not really. I swear you're so confusing. You're like a puzzle. But not one of the easier ones with a hundred pieces, either. You've got more like a thousand pieces to figure out," Chad said, pointing at me.

"You're comparing me to a puzzle? A thousand piece puzzle?" I cocked my head to the side. "You still can't figure out puzzles with a thousand pieces?"

"First off, you've compared me to a Rubik's cube before so now we're even. Second, they're hard and-"

"You have the attention span of a five year old?" I offered, smiling sweetly.

Chad faked a smile. "I was going to say it's harder to do alone. You're the only person I've ever met with the patience for those things." He ran a hand through his hair out of habit. I noticed a few weeks ago that he did that a lot. Not quite as much as say, Robert or Kristen, but still, you get the picture.

"Okay, puzzles and Rubik's cubes aside, let's just start over," I said, really trying to make peace and keep it.

Chad nodded. "Alright. So listen, I only have five minutes before my cast starts looking for me, so let's talk later."

I narrowed my eyes. "Define later. I'm sick of vague."

Chad rolled his eyes but explained. "Want to go to dinner tonight?"

"Uh…" He caught me off guard there.

"As friends, of course."

Oh sure, _now _he's specific! "Uh, right, sure, of course, dinner sounds good." Smooth, Sonny…

"I'll pick you up at six. You be Tiffany, I'll be Alex?"

"Sure. See you then." I waved goodbye and sank onto the couch as soon as he left. Jeez, boy stuff is exhausting.

What? Oh, sorry. Tiffany and Alex are the fake names we used to use when we went out on dates before we went public with our relationship. I wear this super long, super straight blond wig and he wears a messy-on-purpose brown wig. We would definitely need to be them tonight since we didn't want rumors going around that we were back together.

**5:25 P.M. **

By the time I finally got home it was getting close-ish to the time when I'd have to start getting ready for dinner with Chad.

I could hear faint music playing through the front door when I went to open it. I rolled my eyes and laughed a little. Mom…

I opened the door and followed the music down the hall to find my mom bobbing her head in time with the music at her computer. Checking the computer screen, I saw that she was on YouTube. Yeah, I bet no one else has a mom like mine.

"Hi," I shouted over the music.

"Hi, honey," she called back. "Have a good day?"

"Yeah. Hey, can I go out with someone for dinner tonight?" I asked, purposefully making it a 'someone' instead of a specific person, namely, Chad.

"Sure," my mom agreed easily.

The song came to a wild guitar solo and my mom stood up and started dancing. I just watched in horror. Thank goodness for curtains.

"You see, I'm from a rowdy generation. You guys have nothing on us," she said, dancing around in a fashion that any kid would be embarrassed by if they had been out in public. She was referring to some rock and roll song from the seventies. She was always talking about "real" rock and roll being from her generation. Parents… Can't live without 'em, can't be seen with them in public…

"Yeah, that's great mom. Um, I'm leaving at six, okay?"

My mom walked over to the computer desk and finally turned the music down. "Who are you going with?"

Drat! "Alex," I responded a smidgeon too quickly. Technically, it wasn't a lie.

She smiled knowingly at me. "Chad?"

Dang, I forgot she knew about the code names. "Yes," I admitted reluctantly. "Just as friends though. Obviously. Since, uh, I'm dating Randy now," I said, mostly to remind myself.

My mom nodded, clearly thinking "yeah, right." "Thanks for the update. Be home by nine, you've got work tomorrow."

"I will, I promise."

Once in my room, I threw myself into the task of finding a suitable outfit. Not wanting to become Sonny the Barbie doll, I refrained from asking my mom for help. I could do this alone.

Gah! This was harder than I thought. I couldn't go too casual, but I couldn't go too formal. I couldn't look like I was trying too hard to impress him, but I couldn't look like I didn't care at all, either. Ugh! Why are clothes so complicated and important in America's society?

I finally settled on a simple, yet fancy red shirt and a skirt.

By the time I was ready to go, I had two minutes to spare which I spent reminding myself that this was all out of friendship and nothing more. And even if there were reason to get my hopes up, I had a boyfriend.

Somehow, I heard the door knocking over my mother's reminiscent-of-the-seventies music and half-ran to get the door. "Hey," I greeted once I opened the door.

"Hey. You still look pretty good as a blond." Chad pointed to my wig.

If I didn't know better I'd think he was flirting with me. "Yeah, well you can still pull of the brunette look." Oh my gosh, was I just flirting back? Bad Sonny!

"Shall we?" Chad asked.

"Yeah, let's go. Mom, we're leaving!" I called down the hallway. "Bye!" I closed the door behind us and led the way down the stairs.

"Shouldn't I have gone in?" Chad asked from two steps behind me on the staircase.

"No, trust me, she's busy." The last thing I needed was for him to see my mother "rocking out" and "acting cool."

**At the Restaurant**

"So… anything new over at the Falls?" I asked, conversationally after we received our food.

"Not really. Angela and Chris are going out again though," Chad stated before taking a bite of spaghetti.

"No," I said shocked. "Again? Jeez, those two are so on-again-off-again it's annoying."

"Tell me about it. One week, no one can stand to be around them because they're so disgustingly all over each other, and the next, we have to pull out the ear plugs to block out them shouting at each other," Chad complained, jokingly.

"Ugh, I hate couples like that. It's like, are you together or not? Make up your mind." I slyly retrieved the piece of spaghetti that had fallen off my fork from my lap when Chad wasn't looking. _Remind me again why I ordered spaghetti? Oh yeah, because I'm an idiot and didn't think._

"I know. So… we're wrapping up season four next week," Chad said.

"Season five is coming soon after I'm sure," I said, smiling.

"Yeah, but not for a few months." Chad looked like he was debating with himself whether or not to tell me something.

"Something wrong?"

"No, but… I'm going to be gone for a couple of months." He almost sounded reluctant to tell me.

What?! "What, why? Where are you going?" I didn't mean to sound desperate and upset but that's the way it came out.

"I got a major movie deal. We're filming in New York."

"New York, huh? That's uh… that's pretty far away from California. That's all the way across the country," I said, stating the obvious.

"Yeah, I know. It's only for like, seven weeks, though, and then I'll be back as Mackenzie," Chad said, sounding reassuring.

If we were only friends and not a couple, why oh why did this feel and sound like a boyfriend breaking the news that he'd be gone for awhile to his girlfriend. _Stupid feelings… making me feel like I'm cheating on Randy… making me grumble to myself in my head…_

"Right, no, I know. I'm happy for you. So, you're the star this time?" I asked, trying to forget about the fact that he would be gone for _so long_. I really wanted him around, even if it was just on a friend status.

"Sure am," Chad said, happily.

"When are you leaving?"

"Uh, next week."

"_Next_ week?" I finally get my friend back and he has to leave for almost two whole months to be across the country for a movie?

"Yeah. But, hey, we're also having a wrap party for the season. You want to come? You can bring your boyfriend, Randy," Chad said.

My fork landed with a loud clank against my plate when I dropped it. "How did you know about Randy?"

"Portlyn told me."

"Ah, of course." Why was I not surprised?

"So you're coming?" Chad pressed.

"Can I bring the rest of _So Random_ too? Their feelings would be hurt otherwise." I would have pulled out my puppy dog eyes if I didn't already know that they didn't work on Chad.

Chad groaned. "Do they have to come?"

"Do you want me to come or not?" I questioned.

"Fine, bring the Randoms," he agreed, grudgingly.

"Thank you, Alex."

"You're welcome, Tiffany."

**-Gasp- Chad's leaving. Who knew? Even I didn't see that one coming until I was writing it out. By the way, for those of you who didn't get the Robert and Kristen thing for pushing the hair back, I was referring to Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart. Those two are like, constantly doing that. No wonder they seem to get along so well. :) Also, before you guys get all worked up, Sonny is NOT, repeat NOT going to cheat on Randy. Just wanted to get that out there in case any of you got the wrong idea from them kinda sorta flirting. Okay? Okay. Also, not to give anything away but... there is kind of a... I don't want to say plot twist, but there's definitely another "gasp moment" coming in the next chapter. Trust me. I've had this one planned out for a long time. Hehe. Okay, then, thanks for reading. Please review, and I will update sooner this time. Bye! :)**


	6. Sufficiently Awkward

**I'm _finally_ back! Hurray! It has been _so_ long since this poor story got updated that I made it my goal to get this chapter finished first. And I did. Yay. You'll probably have to go back to the last chapter just to refresh your memory as to what this story even is. Anyway, from now on, since it is officially summer for me, I'll be able to update _all_ of my stories _way_ more often. In fact, all this week, I'll put out an update a day for each of my stories and will hopefully be able to continue that way. Alright, I'll let you read now. Enjoy. :)**

Chapter Six: Sufficiently Awkward

To tell or not to tell? That was the question that was taking up massive amounts of space in my brain the day after I had dinner with Chad. On one hand, if I told Randy I'd had dinner with Chad, he might turn out to be one of those obsessive, jealous boyfriend types. _But_... if I didn't tell him... well we've all seen those TV shows where the girlfriend doesn't tell him and he ends up finding out anyway and they have a big gigantic fight that breaks them up. And I didn't want that. And, honesty is not only the best policy, it's my policy. Alright, answer to my question: tell him.

So, I did tell him. And he said he was fine with it and said that he and Sarah would definitely come to the party with us. It was working out better than I thought it would, which was pretty odd for any situation. It got me worrying that there might be some kind of a catch coming sometime soon...

"Okay, so seriously, you should really see it with me sometime," Randy said during lunch.

Alright, he's sweet, but honestly… _boys_… He'd been going on and on about this total guy movie for almost a half hour straight. It was almost worse than when someone would accidentally get Chad ranting about his favorite discontinued line of hair products. _Almost_. To each his own, I guess.

Plus, my neck was starting to get tired from nodding so often and I was just about "mmm-hmm"ed out.

"Oh, I don't know. I feel like I've seen it already," I said, sweetly. Honestly, I could probably tell you the whole plot of the movie if it wasn't so complicated with like, twenty main characters with names that either start with "m" or "n."

"But it's really not the same unless you see it on the big screen," Randy said enthusiastically.

Tawni suppressed a giggle and hid her smirk.

I shot her a look.

Tawni had been enjoying my bored-out-of-mind misery, Zora had been… well I don't know what she was doing. Something involving making a… sculpture… out of mashed potatoes and the unidentified green mush Brenda had given us. Grady and Nico had made it worse because they had _also_ seen the movie. Lucky me…

"Yeah, it's really not," Nico agreed and Grady nodded.

I kept my smile plastered on and quickly thought up an excuse. "Umm… I'll wait for DVD."

"Suit yourself," Grady said. "They're saying _Killer Monkeys from Mars 4 _is the hit movie of the year."

"It's true, I heard that too," Nico piped in.

Guys… I don't even _try_ to understand… Seriously… _Killer Monkeys from Mars 4_? Oh, yeah, sounds like the feel-good film of the year.

"Alright, enough about space monkeys," I said, trying to nicely change the subject. "So we are all going to _Mackenzie Falls_' party, right?"

"Uh, no," Tawni said like it should have been obvious.

I knew they were going to be a tough sell but I could at least _attempt_ to get them to come with Randy, Sarah, and I. "Why not?"

"Why should we?" Zora asked.

"Because it sounds fun, and there'll be tons of free food." I looked at Grady and Nico when I said this.

Grady and Nico exchanged a look before nodding at me and saying, "We're in."

"I'm definitely not going to that stupid party. I'll just hang out in the vents and spy on you guys," Zora said, deviously.

"Wouldn't it be more fun to do that _on the ground_?" I suggested, without much hope that I'd be able to convince her.

"No," Zora scoffed.

"Well I'm not going either," Tawni said, simply, reapplying lip gloss.

"Matt Richards will be there," I said in a sing-song voice. Matt Richards had a recurring role on _Counting the Days_ and Tawni had a huge crush on him.

"What time should we leave?" Tawni asked, suddenly in a cheery mood.

**Night of the Party (AKA, night of my **_**biggest**_** mistake **_**ever**_** in the history of all my mess-ups) **

And so once again, I found myself at another party with all of my friends, boyfriend, and ex-boyfriend/friend. Complicated? A little. Manageable? It had to be. Because really, how bad could it possibly be having my ex and current boyfriend in the same room? It was a big room. The world wouldn't end or anything.

"Wow, they sure did it up…" Randy trailed off as we walked through the doors and onto the set/party area.

"Eh, I've seen nicer," Tawni said critically.

"Me too," Zora called out from somewhere in the vent system.

I smiled wearily and looked at all of them. "Guys, please be nice. They wanted us all here, so let's just all try to return the gesture. Maybe we could actually all be friends."

"Hey, just as long as all of the food is free and there are girls, we're happy. Right, G?" Nico nudged Grady in the ribs.

"Heck, yeah. We'll be good, Sonny," Grady promised hastily as he and Nico took off across the room to see if the _Mackenzie Falls_ logo set up right next to the punch was _really_ made of chocolate.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll try not to offend any drama snobs. Come on, Sarah." Tawni and Sarah took off in Matt Richard's general direction, leaving Randy and I alone in the entryway.

We weren't alone for long though, because no sooner had we taken two steps farther in did Chad suddenly appear from the middle of the mass of people.

"Hi," I said, smiling widely.

"Hey, you made it," Chad greeted happily. He nodded his acknowledgment to Randy. "Hello."

"Hello." Randy spoke with as much warmness as Chad did.

"Oh, uh, Chad this is Ra- Oh wait! Hold on!" I wasn't entirely sure of the etiquette rules for when you introduce your ex-boyfriend to your new boyfriend, but I had a feeling that in this case, I should introduce Chad to Randy first. Mess up number one, check.

Gesturing to Chad this time with my left hand, I tried starting over. "Okay, _Randy_, this is my boyfriend, _Chad_, and- Oh shoot!" The heel of my hand smacked into my forehead at boneheaded mistake number two.

Clearing my throat, I tried to ignore the fact that my cheeks were probably redder than the dress I'd picked out for this. "Alright, I've got it this time. _Randy_ this is _Chad, _my_ friend_, and _Chad_ this is my _boyfriend, Randy_. There, I think that was right."

Chad shook his head and chuckled under his breath. "Hi," he said again.

Randy smiled uncomfortably and raised his hand up in half of a wave.

"Okay, this has been sufficiently awkward, so Chad, we'll catch you later, and Randy and I'll just go get some punch." I started dragging Randy away by the sleeve of his dark blue collared shirt.

Chad smirked annoyingly. "I thought you hated punch."

"No, I love punch," I excused feebly. That wasn't entirely true, but I was just trying to get the heck out of there until my cheeks could return to a normal, paler color.

"You always said you didn't like it." The joking glint in his blue eyes that matched his collared shirt as well was a tipoff that he was just trying to make things harder on me as a joke. Hahaha.

"I _love_ punch." The glare I sent his way made him hold up his hands in defeat and finally let up.

"Alright, you love punch. See you later," Chad called out.

When I finally released my grip on Randy's shirt, we were already at the punch bowl where Grady and Nico were breaking off pieces from the edible, chocolate _Mackenzie Falls_ logo.

"Well that was kind of… awkward…" I observed, rubbing the back of my neck.

"Oh, I don't know if it was _that_ bad," Randy said, clearly trying to see the bright side of it all, as usual.

"I suppose it could have been worse… Hey, I'm thirsty. I'm going to go get some water."

He gestured to the punch bowl. "Don't you just want some punch? I thought you loved punch."

"Oh, no, I actually don't really like punch. Thanks anyway, though. I'll be right back." I turned and left, leaving a probably confused Randy with all of my "punch issues."

After trying to get through the crowd and getting shuffled around quite a bit by some crazy dancers, I had somehow ended up right back where I started with still no water.

Sighing, I walked back to Randy anyway who was seemingly standing alone. He had his back turned and I smiled deviously. Getting a spur of the moment idea in my head, I quickly reached out, spun him around by the shoulders, and started kissing him.

He was surprisingly hesitant as he wound his arms around me. Hmm… weird… Randy wasn't usually this good of a kisser. After almost thirty more seconds, we finally pulled away from each other.

When I saw his face I gasped louder than I thought possible. That wasn't Randy! Chad and Randy had both worn the same color of shirt and I had mistaken Chad for Randy! Do you know what that meant? I had just kissed Chad! On the lips! In front of hundreds of people! And I enjoyed it a lot more than I probably should have!

I clamped my hand over my mouth and backed up slowly. Chad looked just as shocked, if not more, than I did. I removed my hand and pointed at Chad. "You're not Randy," I said slowly.

He shook his head. "Never really have been…" he choked out.

I wondered if he was feeling as confused I was. I checked to see if anyone had seen and was staring at us. No one was.

I was having some really confusing and messed up thoughts. Thoughts that were not _shutting up_!

"Okay… uh, sorry…" A few awkward seconds of silence passed. "I've got to go," I suddenly said, bolting to the other side of the room where I would probably find Randy.

When I finally found the _real_ Randy, I found him watching Portlyn yelling at Nico and Grady over something. As I got closer to them, I could hear what was going on.

"Why are you eating it now? That was for the guests, you clowns!" Portlyn cuffed both Grady and Nico on the shoulder.

"We're guests too," Grady reminded her, backing away from Portlyn inch by inch.

"Yeah, and you ate like, half of it and got your slobber on the rest of it!"

Nico edged closer to Portlyn and held up a chunk of the chocolate with part of an "L" carved into it. "Sorry. You want a piece?"

Portlyn made a face and strutted away from them, letting the subject drop after that.

"So, seriously, what do you think my chances with her are?" Nico asked Randy.

"I'd say about one in ten," Randy offered. He stuffed his hands into his pockets.

Nico's face lit up. "Really, that good?"

"Hey, guys," I greeted with an edge of guilt in my voice. _It was just a mistake,_ I told myself again. _Not a big deal. Didn't even feel a spark…_

"Hey. I thought you were getting water." Randy laughed.

"Oh, uh, I was- er, I did. I just, uh, you know, drank it all on the uh, the way back. Is it getting hot in here or is it just me?" I wiped a bead of sweat off my forehead and chuckled nervously.

Randy looked at me in confusion, still smiling as usual. "Are you okay? You seem… anxious or something. Did something happen?"

"What?" My voice pitch shot up the scale and it took three sips of a random cup of punch stolen from a passing partygoer to get it back down and away from "chipmunk" level. "No, no, no, I uh, no nothing hap- happened. What would- what would make you think that? I –no, no, I'm fine. Everything's fine, nothing- psh, I'm good, I'm not anxious."

"Are you sure?" Randy's voice was filled with concern, and now even Nico and Grady were watching me.

I nodded my head a few times more than necessary. All three pairs of eyes on me were making me even more nervous. The guilt was eating at me. Darn it, why did this always happen to me? It was like the cheating incident all over again. _Except this time you cheated on your boyfriend_, my head reminded me.

_I have to tell him. I have to tell him!_

My mouth impulsively opened and started blurting out the very thing that I wasn't ready to share yet. "Alright already, I k-" Searching for a way out, I had grabbed a piece of vanilla cake off someone's plate and shoved it into my mouth and onto part of my face to muffle the rest of my confession.

Randy's jaw dropped and Grady started laughing at the frosting that was probably smeared all over my guilty, vanilla-y face.

Chuckling nervously, I swallowed the cake and the rest of my confession as well before I cleared my throat. "I just… really love this cake. You should try some."

"Um, okay…" He used his right index finger to swipe a bit of frosting off my face and ate it off his finger. "Mmm… It is pretty good, I guess…"

I stopped mid-shrug when I saw Chad circulating the room and heading for our direction. My face probably resembled the deer-in-the-headlights look. "Uh, I feel kind of sick. I'll be back."

Quickly, I hurried out of sight and ducked behind a blown up picture of the _Mackenzie Falls_' cast before I had to duck and roll again all the way to the bathroom. Where I didn't have the guts to come out of for the rest of the night…

**Well, what'd you think? Like it, love it, hate it, so-so, tell me! In my opinion, it _was_ a little random in some parts, but I don't know. I had a hard time writing this chapter.  
Aside from that, that certainly was quite the plot twist, huh? And since Sonny "left" the party early, she didn't get to say goodbye to Chad who's leaving for New York the next day. :(  
I based Sonny's extreme guilt and nervousness off of the episode "Cheater Girls" when Sonny blurted out that she cheated after acting like a nervous, cheating wreck. Looking back, it seems like I've been giving Sonny too much credit and having her lie without batting an eye, when in the show, she can't lie to save her life. So in this, I decided to finally change that and put her back in character. Hopefully...  
Anyway, thanks for reading. I'll be putting out the first chapter of _Can't Say I Didn't Try_ later today, as promised. Happy summer! And good luck to those of you still stuck in school. Hang in there. :) Bye for now! :)**


	7. Twenty Six Were From You

Chapter Seven: Twenty-Six Were From You

"Aaah!"

My phone flew across the room, hit Marshall in the shoulder, ricocheted off Nico's stomach and clipped Grady in the leg.

A chorus of ouches followed along with hard, questioning glances being thrown to the owner, cowering behind the alien prop in the corner.

The sound of a loud, now-impatient cow mooing interrupted the "what was that for," the "what was in your cereal this morning," and "I just came to tell you rehearsal's in five" being spoken.

Marshall was the one who bent down to pick up the vibrating and mooing phone. He examined it and looked at the small screen. "'Chad,'" he read from the screen.

"Don't answer it!" I shouted hurriedly, coming out from behind the little alien dude.

Marshall startled and dropped the phone to the ground. Grady reached down to retrieve it and I made a dive to get to it first, but he beat me to the punch.

"Hello?" Grady asked cheerfully.

"No!" I yelled in despair, reaching up for my phone while I was still lying on the ground by their feet.

"Oh, hi, Chad… Yeah, Sonny's right here." Grady held out my phone to me. "Here you go, Sonny."

"Thanks," I grumbled reluctantly. Cringing, I rolled over into a sitting position and cleared my throat nervously. "Um, hey, Chad."

"Hi…" Chad spoke guardedly.

"So, uh, how's New York? Had a hotdog yet? I hear they're fantastic," I tried weakly.

The sound of three retreating footsteps assured me that I would at least be able to have this awkward conversation in private. I hadn't _technically_ called Chad or answered any of his calls since the little… mix-up at the party… three weeks ago.

"No, I haven't…"

"Well, you should, 'cause, uh… they're fantastic…" My brown eyes closed in despair at how idiotic I was sounding.

"Right…" Chad said awkwardly.

My right hand was already starting to get sweaty so I had to transfer my cell to my drier left hand. "So, was there any specific reason you called?"

"Well," he took on a new tone. "When I got back from filming in front of the green screen and checked my phone, there were _twenty__-six _missed calls. Twenty-six were from you." There was a slight pause. "Sonny was there something on your mind or something…?"

"Umm… Funny story… hehe… you see, I was trying to call someone else, and kept hitting your name by mistake. I mean, what are the odds?" I asked, laughing nervously.

"So, let me get this straight. You hit my name by mistake, _twenty-six_ times?" Chad checked, quite obviously not buying my horrible lie.

The truth was that I had been debating with myself on whether or not to call him and had in turn, dialed his number twenty-six times, and _hung up_ twenty-six times as soon as it got to voice mail. Facing my fears has never really been my forte.

"Mm-hm."

"_Really_, Sonny? Did you _really_?"

"Well…" I scratched my head and thought desperately for an excuse. The first one that came to mind was lame, but all I got. "Did you know that I know another Chad?"

"Do you?" Chad asked, not convinced in the slightest.

"Yeah, I do. Funny, right? His name's Chad…" My eyes searched the room. "Clock… cake… Chad Clockake. What's funnier is I think his middle name is even Derek." I laughed feebly. "Seriously, I should introduce you sometime."

"Sonny, really? You expect me to believe that?"

"Uh… Well, it's not like it's that improbable."

"Sonny."

"No…"

"Okay then."

Another uncomfortable silence passed and all we could hear was the other's breathing.

Chad cleared his throat. "So… what happened…? You know, that one night?" he inquired hesitantly.

"Uh, what night?"

"_Sonny_."

"Oh, _that_ night… Well, um. I sort of got lost with all the dancers and such and you and Randy look alike in the back and were wearing the same shirt so I thought I was kissing Randy when really I was kissing you and I'm sorry for not saying goodbye but I almost told Randy that I kissed you and ended up shoving cake in my face and rolling out of the room!" I blurted out quickly, having to take several deep breaths at the end after letting so much out in one sentence.

"He was wearing the same shirt as me? Jerk," was all Chad replied to.

"Chad."

"Right, right, well, I guess that makes sense. Except for the rolling and cake part," he clarified.

"Well… Hey, wait a minute!"

"What?"

"You kissed me back!" I said accusingly.

"…And?" Chad asked a little anxiously.

"Were you kissing me back because you realized that it was me or was it just because you thought 'oh gee, a girl's kissing me, might as well enjoy it,' in a very pigheaded way?" I interrogated.

"Oh please Sonny, I knew it was you," Chad scoffed.

"So you kissed me back because you knew it was me?" Goodness it certainly was hard to get a straight answer out of him!

"Er… no."

"But that doesn't make any sense."

"Alright fine, I kissed you back because I knew it was you," Chad finally admitted. "But if you ask why then-"

"Then what?" I challenged, sitting up straighter on the floor.

"Then I might just have to kiss you again."

I blinked and must've stopped breathing for a second there because I had to let out a shaky breath before I could talk again. "Um, I'm sorry, what did you just say?"

"I said I might just have to kick you when I get back."

I shook my head to clear it up a little. Stupid brain, playing tricks on me!

"That's lame. Just kick me, huh? I think I just might have to ask," I said before looking up at the ceiling in disappointment. Then, of course, I was hit with a wave of guilt because, newsflash: I still had a boyfriend! Ugh… To think I actually thought I was over this guy.

"Well just because you ask doesn't mean you'll get an answer. At least not a truthful one," Chad answered back cockily.

"Why'd you kiss me back?" I asked, sounding equally cocky.

"I told you I'm not telling."

"No, you just said I wouldn't get a truthful answer."

"Well, you're not getting either."

"Fine."

"Fine."

"Good."

"Good."

"When are you coming back?" I asked suddenly.

"Four more weeks," Chad said, sounding a little less enthusiastic than I'd expected him to.

"_Chad, come on! Our scene is next!_" I heard a girl complain to Chad through the phone.

"Uh, sorry, I've got to go. I'll talk to you later…?" Chad said.

"Um, sure, yeah… If you get a chance…" Great… Awkwardness once again… Why'd I have to kiss him? When will I ever learn that spontaneity only works for other people?

"…'Kay, bye."

"Bye." I pressed the end button and stared at the screen for a minute before rolling my eyes and letting myself fall onto my back on the floor again.

_**--One Week Later--**_

"Okay, this thing must weigh like eighty-six tons, what the heck is in here, Tawni?" I questioned while having to lug "Princess Tawni's" pink duffel bag across the parking lot. "And more importantly, why am I the one carrying this, again?"

"You offered," Tawni stated simply, flouncing ahead of me to where her car was parked. "Just set it down in the backseat."

Making a face at Tawni, I readjusted the bag and slung it over my shoulder for the rest of the walk. When I got to her car, I opened the backseat's door myself and tossed it onto the seat. I didn't consider asking her what the bag was for, _offering_ to help her carry the bag.

"And nothing much was in there. Just shoes and books," Tawni said with a "no big deal" shrug for emphasis.

"Shoes and _books_?" I asked incredulously. That would explain the weight issue for me. That duffel bag must've been absolutely stuffed with shoes and books.

Tawni stiffened. "Tawni Hart reads too," she excused, walking around the side to close up her full trunk as well. "And… thank… you… for helping," she managed to choke out.

"You're welcome. So where are you going for your break anyway, Tawni?"

Mr. Condor recently acquired a whole truckload of money from a smart business move and was therefore in a fantastic mood. Thus giving every single worker in the studio the week off to do what they pleased.

Everyone I knew already had plans to go do something fantastic or go somewhere exotic. Me? I was staying home pretty much by myself with Randy and Sarah. Good thing? …No. I'd been trying to avoid him ever since the party because every time I was around him, something had to be shoved in my mouth because I didn't know how to tell him about the kiss. I knew I'd eventually have to tell him, but… just not yet. Not when my lousy conscience was the one making me blurt it out.

"I'm going away to Hawaii with my family for the week," Tawni said, grinning. "What are you doing?"

"I'm staying here for the week doing… nothing," I offered blandly.

"Oh." Tawni frowned for half a second before replacing it with a bright smile. "Have fun." And with that, she hopped into her car and drove off with me still standing in the parking space next to where she used to be.

"Oh yeah," I muttered to myself. "This should be great fun."

**

* * *

**

**--UPDATE - April 29, 2010--**  
**I'm sorry, but this story is now on permanent hiatus.**  
**If you're desperate to know how it ends (I doubt it, but whatever), PM me and I'll tell you.**  
**Thank you for reading this far. :-)**


End file.
